[syslinux] Re: [PATCH] /proc/sys/kernel/bootloader_type

[H. Peter Anvin]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor.com> wrote:
> 
>>This patch exports to userspace the boot loader ID which has been 
>> exported by (b)zImage boot loaders since boot protocol version 2.
> 
> Why does userspace need to know this?
> 

In order to try to figure out what the boot medium was.  For some boot 
loaders, like grub, it could be more or less anything, but others, e.g. 
syslinux, knowing what the boot loader is lets you know what the medium was.

> 
>> --- linux-2.5/arch/i386/Makefile	24 Dec 2004 21:09:54 -0000	1.73
>> +++ linux-2.5/arch/i386/Makefile	28 Dec 2004 04:56:17 -0000
>> @@ -20,6 +20,10 @@
>>  LDFLAGS_vmlinux :=
>>  CHECKFLAGS	+= -D__i386__
>>  
>> +# This allows compilation with an x86-64 compiler
>> +CC_M32		:= $(call cc-option,-m32)
>> +CC 		+= $(CC_M32)
> 
> 
> Was this hunk deliberately a part of this patch?

No, that was a separate patch I submitted several weeks ago which was 
apparently still in that tree.  Would be good to get that patch into the 
tree, though; it allows an x86-64 setup to compile an i386 kernel with 
only make ARCH=i386.

	-hpa